Last week Tuesday in the city of Lagos, an early morning rainfall had just ended. The weather was cool, but not the tempers of scores of protesters who had gathered in front of the Marina office of Shell Nigeria in Lagos. They were environmentalists who had gathered to protest against Shell’s Net Zero programme. “Net zero is a scam,” they chanted, carrying placards with various inscriptions that buttressed their message.
Speaking at the protest, by Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) said, “Today, as we gather in front of Shell premises in Lagos, in The Hague, Netherlands, Shell is organizing its annual general meeting.
“This engagement is global because many who cannot attend physically will join virtually.
“Shell’s primary goal in this meeting is to sell the idea of the spin called net zero to its shareholders.
“While Shell continues to trumpet its net zero pledge to end flares by year 2050, communities across the African continent, on the frontlines of the climate crisis, are saying enough to false solutions to climate change and demanding real action including Shell’s greenwashing and abuses. These communities are saying Shell must be held accountable for its climate crimes.”
What is net zero?
Simply put, net zero is a target of completely negating the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity, to be achieved by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The targeted year for achieving net zero is 2050.
On February 11, 2021, Shell set out its strategy to accelerate its transformation into a provider of net-zero emissions energy products and services.
“Our accelerated strategy will drive down carbon emissions and will deliver value for our shareholders, our customers and wider society,” said Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden.
According to International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA), Shell’s strategy sets out how it will achieve its target to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.
The target covers the emissions from its operations and the emissions from the use of all the energy products it sells. It also includes emissions from the oil and gas that others produce and Shell then sells as products to customers.
Shell net-zero strategy among others includes: “A new set of targets to reduce net-carbon intensity: 6-8% by 2023, 20% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 100% by 2050, using a baseline of 2016.”
Net zero, a controversial issue?
There seems to be much distrust over the net zero concept especially as when it comes to so-called ‘Big Polluters’. These are mostly companies with household names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP and Shell – to state-owned companies including Saudi Aramco and Gazprom, said to be responsible for a huge proportion of green house gas emmissions that result in climate.
Several international climate justice organisations including Malaysian based Third World Network and Friends of the Earth International, in February 2021, released a new report: Chasing Carbon Unicorns: The deception of carbon markets and “net zero”.
The climate justice groups said that in the lead up to the delayed UN Climate Change Conference (called COP26) scheduled to held in Glasgow, in the United Kingdom later this year, big polluters including major big fossil fuel corporations and their governments continue to expand fossil fuel exploitation.
According to these climate justice groups, “’Net zero’ means that fossil fuel companies can continue to explore, drill, extract, and burn fossil fuels, while someone somewhere else sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, magically balancing out emissions. But whose land, whose forests will be used to suck that carbon out? Fossil futures require carbon unicorns.
“The area of land required to sequester just 2 Gt CO2 through ecosystem restoration is estimated at 678 million hectares – about twice the land area of the country of India. Communities in the developing world are already facing huge land and resource grabs, loss of livelihoods, and violations of their territorial rights.
“’Net zero’ targets need to be transformed into Real Zero targets, including a complete phase-out of fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, keeping equity in mind, and support for rights for communities whose livelihoods are dependent on those ecosystems.”
The report was published by Friends of the Earth International, La Via Campesina, Indigenous Environmental Network, Corporate Accountability, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, Third World Network, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Climate Justice Alliance and Justiça Ambiental.
Rachel Rose Jackson of Corporate Accountability said: “Big Polluters and Global North governments are using net zero schemes as an escape hatch from their responsibility for fueling the climate crisis. Not only do these faulty pledges shift the burden to the people on the frontlines and in the Global South, they will continue to drive environmental destruction, food insecurity and other human rights abuses all while failing to actually cut real emissions. For Big Polluters, net zero schemes are simply a means to greenwash their images and mask their plans to continue to emit. It’s time to listen to the people and let science, not unicorn technologies and dangerous fringe theories guide climate policy.”
Environmentalists’ perspective on Shell’s Net Zero
According to CAPPA, “Net Zero” is a scam. The group stated that net zero “is increasingly being used by most polluting governments and corporations to evade responsibility, shift burdens (increasingly to developing countries) and disguise climate inaction. Net zero is being used to greenwash business-as-usual as corporations scale up fossil fuel extraction, burning and emissions.”
CAPPA added that an analysis by Oil Change International of corporate net zero pledges showed that on almost every count, pledges for net zero emissions by Shell were “grossly insufficient”.
It added that, within its most recent climate pledges, this analysis shows Shell has no plans to stop exploration, stop approving new extraction projects, nor to set a long-term production phase out plan aligned with 1.5C
Net zero pledges overwhelming rely on either emissions offsets or nonexistent carbon capture technologies. They are not a viable or just strategy for keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.
The demands
Oluwafemi said that, “Africa is carrying the biggest burden of climate change and know what the real solutions are. We are calling for our governments to stand with people and communities, not Shell and other Big Polluters. That is why today we are demanding that the Nigerian government and governments across Africa Reject Net Zero and instead, Make Big Polluters Pay.”
The body said that Africa as a continent needs to keep fossil fuels in the ground; end handouts for polluting corporations; and make Big Polluters pay for decades of deception and abuse.
The environmentalists also demanded for real emissions reductions; not far off promises that rely on non-existent technologies and will likely cause great harm to communities.
From Shell
Nigerian Tribune sought to get the reaction of Shell Nigeria to the protest at its Marina office and the issues in concern. A call was put through to the number on Shell Nigeria’s website (www.shell.com.ng) attached to Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager. The response from the associated network provider was that the number +234 807 022 8045, does not exist. An email sent to [email protected] got to no response at the time of filing this story.
However, latest report has it that last week, Shell Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, had announced at the oil company’s annual general meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, that the company has struggled for years with spills in the Niger Delta because of pipeline theft and sabotage as well as operational issues.
Beurden had remarked that Shell cannot solve community problems in the Niger Delta, and added that, “that is for the Nigerian government perhaps to solve”.
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